NEWS

NOAA's New Satellite Has No Chill, And That's A Serious Problem

A cooling system onboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES-17 satellite is malfunctioning.

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's newest weather satellite has no chill, and that's a problem.

A cooling system onboard NOAA's GOES-17 satellite is malfunctioning and causing the craft's Advanced Baseline Imager's infrared and near-infrared imaging to degrade.

The satellite's meant to monitor part of the Western Hemisphere — all the way from the Western U.S. to New Zealand. NOAA says it could be used to allow meteorologists to monitor and track developing storms in greater detail.

It's not clear how much of that mission it'll be able to carry out with this cooling issue.

GOES-17 can still function without fully working infrared — it can still monitor lightning and take visible spectrum images. But if the cooling system can't be restored, NOAA has said it'll look for alternative missions for the satellite.